3 Local Teams a Step Closer to Hawaii Trip

Three area high school football teams took a step closer this week to a Hawaiian trip when a Honolulu promoter secured a date for a tripleheader featuring the Canyon, Crespi and Montclair Prep teams.

The tripleheader is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 30, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. Canyon is scheduled to play Honolulu St. Louis, which won the Hawaii state championship with a 13-0 mark and has a 53-game winning streak. Although Hawaiian opponents for Crespi and Montclair Prep have yet to be selected and official invitations must be sent to the Southern Section office, the event will take place, promoter Skip Akina said.

“It’s a go as far as I’m concerned, and it’s a go from their (the schools’) end too,” he said.

Akina originally had tried to schedule a tripleheader for Aug. 25, but plans hit a snag when he learned that Southern Section rules prohibit football teams from playing when their sport is out of season. Because the tripleheader was scheduled before the Southern Section season starts, the trip would not have been approved.

But the Southern Section offered a compromise that would allow the teams to travel if the event was moved back one week. Akina obliged and organized the Aug. 30 tripleheader. He also will stage an Aug. 25 tripleheader that will include San Diego Morse.

Both events will be played for charity, with proceeds going to the scholarship fund of former Hawaiian high school star Shawn Akina, Skip’s brother who died in 1986.